Ecclesiastes 12:14: “Because God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”

It is interesting that the word for God has an article in front of it. It should be The God.   The word for God is haelohim which is referring to one who has authority over you.   It comes from the root word is alah, which sounds almost like the Arabic word for Alah. The word elohim has a broad range of meanings.  It is used to refer to God Jehovah, to angels and even to human judges.  In this verse the article is used to express the fact that there may be many gods out there that people serve, but there is only one who will call our actions into judgment, that is The God Jehovah or YHWH.

He will call all our acts or ‘asah into judgment. ‘Asah means works, produce, and creations.  ‘Asah refers not only to physical acts but spiritual acts.  He will call into judgment our evil acts. The word evil in Hebrew here is ra’ This particular ra’ word has a reference to evil intentions.  It is to be envious, hurtful to others.  It has its origins in the mind. This includes the creations of our imaginations.

God gave us imaginations so we can create things. The Talmud teaches that God did not cease to create on the seventh day, He merely passed that creation process onto us by giving us an imagination.  With our imagination we have created ships that sails the high seas, planes that fly in the air and automobiles to take us across country.  Man has used his imagination to create many wonderful things that are good or tov in harmony with God.  But man has also created things which are evil as pornography, books with messages that are not in harmony with God or pictures and movies which are not in harmony with God.

Here is what caught my attention, God will also judge those acts that are good.  Why judge the good things?  Note He will judge those hidden things both good and evil. Hidden is the word ‘alam which is really your word for everlasting. Do we ever stop to think that our creative acts, could last forever? Both good and bad acts will be judged for their eternal value.  Even good acts might have evil motives resulting in something that is not in harmony with God. But all acts can have a greater effect. Sometimes a good act can result in something evil in the future. Opium was developed with good intentions but soon resulted in widespread evil.

Ray Bradbury the science fiction writer wrote a story about a corporation that would take adventurers back in time to a prehistoric period and allow the adventurers to hunt and kill a dinosaur.  They always went back to the same period to kill the same dinosaur that would have died a natural death only moments before their adventurers killed it so that it would not upset the timeline.  One of the adventurers accidentally stepped on a butterfly and when they returned to their own time their entire world was different.  Just one butterfly that died prematurely and the entire timeline of the world in the future was changed.  Many novels and movies have been written discussing the possibility of time and how going into past and making one small change could eventually disrupt the entire future. It is called the Butterfly Effect. The Butterfly Effect theory is that small causes such as the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can have large effects.  I believe that the writer used the word ‘alam which is rendered as hidden to really mean what it really means and that is everlasting.  God is going to judge the Butterfly Effect.  He is going to judge every little act of good or evil to its greater outcome.

Mordecai Ham, an early 20^th century evangelist was having very poor results in his ministry such that he was ready to cancel his North Carolina crusades.  He wrote in his diary that he had one meeting where his only convert was a skinny little farm boy. What if he had canceled that meeting and that skinny little farm boy never found Jesus.  What would the world be like without that skinny little farm boy named Billy Graham.  There would have been no Henrietta Mears, Bill Bright, Stuart Hamblen and countless others who lives were affected by Billy Graham which lead them into other worldwide ministries. I know God would have raised someone else up, but what about Mordecai Ham, he would have been judged for a deed like closing down his crusade because he was discouraged, a crusade which proved to have ‘alam, not just hidden but eternal results. We can use the word hidden because we have no idea what the result of just one small action we make, whether good or evil.  It is easy to say that there are millions of voters, what effect will my one vote have?  You don’t know, it is ‘alam, hidden but it could also be ‘alam eternal.

The Talmud teaches that if you save one life you save the world.  What that means is that you just never know about that life you may save. That person may become a world leader, a great scientist who finds a cure for some disease or an artist that can bring special joy to the world. People have testified how their lives were changed just by one kind word from someone. No matter how small the act whether good or bad there is the potential to a greater effect and God will judge you for that act.